Paul Hughes made a resounding return to the win column with a highly impressive performance.
On Saturday, Hughes stepped back into the cage to face Bruno Miranda in the main event of PFL Belfast, held at the SSE Arena in his hometown. This fight was significant for Hughes, marking his first appearance since his extremely close decision loss to Usman Nurmagomedov in their Bellator lightweight title bout in January. The event itself was heavily promoted around the return of the Belfast native. True to form, “Big News” seized the opportunity, dispatching Miranda in less than a minute.
The atmosphere at the SSE Arena was electric from the moment Hughes began his walkout, which included a live introduction by Irish musician Foy Vance that ignited the crowd. Hughes channeled this energy into a blistering start against Miranda, pushing forward aggressively. He successfully caught a lazy kick from Miranda and capitalized immediately with a sharp left hook that dropped the Brazilian fighter. Hughes wasted no time, swarming with ground-and-pound, forcing the referee to intervene just 42 seconds into the contest.
Following the swift victory, Hughes had a direct message for his previous, and hopefully future, opponent.
He called out: “Usman Nurmagomedov! You can run, you can try to delay this rematch as long as you want, but your day is f*cking coming!”
